Churches facing 'apocalypse soon'
From The Times January 17, 2006

Churches facing 'apocalypse soon'
By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent

THE Church of England is to demand an urgent government cash injection of £55 million a year to avert an “apocalypse” with the closure of hundreds of medieval churches.

The Right Rev Richard Chartres, Bishop of London and the Church’s third most senior bishop, is calling on the Government to stop treating the Church as a “museum piece” and to recognise its contribution to modern Britain.

“It’s not apocalypse now but it is limited apocalypse soon,” he said. “If no extra money is forthcoming we will see a spate of church closures and losses to whole communities of buildings that cannot be sustained.”


The Church has an annual repair bill of £120 million, but there is a £373 million backlog of repairs. To meet new laws on disabled access will cost each church an average of £49,000.


The Church needs £55 million a year from government and is the “most disestablished in Europe”. French cathedrals are maintained by the State and German churches benefit from a secular tax system.

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